The Enid Blyton Society

Tony Summerfield wrote: I said somewhere yesterday that it was time I was put out to grass as I had failed to notice that Angela Canning had left the last half line off her article. It was actually her mistake, but I take the full blame for failing to notice it!

Tony, on reading the article (on Harmsen Van der Beek), it turns out that the missing half line has somehow been transposed into the middle of another line a couple of paragraphs up! How that came about I don't know, but the whole article is there after all - just not quite all in the correct order.

Here's what it looks like on the page (p. 66 of the Journal):

His brought him to life, we have to thank a Dutchman.daughter, Fritzi Harmsen van der Beek, completed his 46th Flipje strip and illustrated 2 more....
[about 9 more lines]
Meanwhile Noddy's fame spread world-wide, and for those first wonderful, vivid illustrations that

With the stray half-sentence transposed back to where it belongs...

His daughter, Fritzi Harmsen van der Beek, completed his 46th Flipje strip and illustrated 2 more....
[about 9 more lines]
Meanwhile Noddy's fame spread world-wide, and for those first wonderful, vivid illustrations that brought him to life, we have to thank a Dutchman.

You are quite right!! How on earth could I have missed that!

(turns back to his new grassy area)

Aw, I wasn't meaning to embarrass you, Tony - just wanted to reassure you that the whole article really is there.

Tony Summerfield wrote:(turns back to his new grassy area)

No grass for you, Tony - the Journal is fabulous!

*Puts up a "KEEP OFF THE GRASS" sign and gives Tony a toothbrush to scrub the grass stains off his teeth.*

Anita Bensoussane wrote: No grass for you, Tony - the Journal is fabulous!

Hear!Hear!

Received Journal 53 a few days ago and enjoyed it a lot. Thanks, Tony.

I've finished reading Journal 53 and I found it entertaining and informative. As Tony says in his Editorial, the Phyllis Chase pictures of characters being buffeted by the wind (Contents page and Editorial page) are very apt after all the storms we've had in recent months! It's also interesting to see the vividly-coloured Phyllis Chase plates from the newly-discovered Birns book Mary and Her Toys.

I feel the same as John Lester about the Wishing-Chair books - that The Wishing-Chair Again benefits from having a greater number of lengthy incidents spread over several chapters, making it read like a novel rather than like a collection of short stories. I'd have loved to do that Wishing-Chair jigsaw when I was little!

How wonderful to meet the 1924 incarnations of Binkle and Flip (then Bill Bunny and Harry Hare) in 'A Pair of Scamps'. There are quite a lot of familiar names in the story, and some others (besides the names of the main protagonists) that were to change. A delightful tale with exquisite illustrations by Kathleen Nixon, though I'd like to have seen a picture of the rabbit and hare smoking their pipes!

Robert Houghton's perceptive article on 'The Railway Children and The Family at Red-Roofs' is excellent. I hadn't realised there were so many similarities between the two books, even though they've both been favourites of mine since childhood.

Angela Canning's piece is full of fascinating facts about Beek and I also enjoyed re-reading Adventure at Midnight (I have the 2003 booklet), though it's little more than the bare bones of a story and I wish Enid Blyton had embellished it and turned it into a longer and more involved tale.

David Chambers' articles are always painstakingly researched and I found the story of the Birns and their connection with the Tucks very interesting indeed. Thoughtful points about Molly Benatar too. What a lot of checked caps!

I enjoyed all the other contributions as well, and I look forward to reading the delumptious-looking Sunny Stories booklets advertised on the back cover.

Yippeee, mine has arrived. Thank you Tony.

What a great issue! Thank you Tony and all the contributors - the arrival of the journal is always guaranteed to lift the spirits. I have just finished re-reading The Family at Red Roofs after a 40 year gap so I found Robert Houghton's article comparing the book with The Railway Children really insightful. Anita's piece on the new annual has also made me rush out and buy a copy!

Mine was waiting for me when I got home!
I hope to start on it tonight and renew by the end of the month.

Really enjoyed the article from Miranda the monkey and thought Adventure at Midnight was superb.
The whole journal was very enjoyable.
Regards

Pete

Anita Bensoussane wrote:

Tony Summerfield wrote:(turns back to his new grassy area)

No grass for you, Tony - the Journal is fabulous!

Yes, Tony, it's fabulous indeed. Don't even think of grass, think of Journal # 54, please .
Well, this is my first EBS journal and I particularly enjoyed the FF short stories presented by Julie with the illustrations that Eileen A. Soper provided. I didn't even know that there were Soper illustrations as the German translation by Omnibus publishers has only a few mediocre illustrations by somebody else.
Now I will try to find a hardcover copy in English with the Soper illustrations for all 8 short stories.
This was such a treasure to discover!

Maybe I'm missing something but Soper didn't illustrate them all. She did the four that appeared in the magazine annuals, but as far as I know the others were by a variety of other illustrators.

Also, there is no hardback that I know of containing all stories. There is the Red Fox paperback and I think a more recent paperback, but that's it unless you want to buy the stories separately in their original collectipns. Two appeared in Princess annuals, one was a Weeties strip book, and I always forget where the other one came from. All that info is in the cave and I wrote a couple of blogs about the short stories a while back, reviewing them and using info from the cave to cover the stories' origins.

Glad you liked the article, Chrissie. I'm a bit puzzled as to the illustrations you mentioned. Soper illustrated the Five that appeared in the Enid Blyton Magazine Annuals 1-4 which I mentioned. The book full of short stories are not by Soper.

Here is a section from the Journal article I wrote:-

(Just before I close, I just want to add that I’m not all that keen on the illustrations in my book of short stories. The illustrations which appear in Enid Blyton’s Magazine Annuals 1 – 4, which I have a set of, are illustrated by Eileen Soper, and so are exactly as the Famous Five should look like for me, as all my 21 books are hard backed with dust jackets and are illustrated by Eileen Soper. )

Maybe you just misread the article regarding Soper. Glad to hear you've joined the Society. It is worth buying any Journals that can still be purchased from the online shop if Tony has any left. I've not checked the shop so I don't know if any or still available.